THE PAINTED LABYRINTH, HUALIEN, TAIWAN (2011)

In April, 2011 Lily Yeh was invited to create a large-scale environmental installation at the foothills of the Hua Don Mountains on the east coast of Taiwan. The Painted Labyrinth is one of eight environmental installations commissioned by the Masadi Green Wonder, an international art project and exhibition held in Hualien, Taiwan.

The project aims to protect a replanted one thousand hector forest from commercial development through raising people’s awareness and creating opportunities for the general public to enjoy and experience the precious young forest.

Utilizing the copious driftwood that has washed down from the mountains, Lily Yeh designed a one hundred and fifty meter diameter labyrinth that transformed much of the huge wrecked timber into a painted forest. In its center stands a lush living tree bedecked with hundreds of mirror pieces that shimmer in sunlight.

Sponsored and organized by the Taipei-based Artfield Architects & Associates, three-hundred school children of Ah Mei and Truku tribes (the original inhabitants of the forest land) and two-hundred senior citizens and volunteers participated in the creation of the project.